Poster #87 - Pretend Play as a Protective Factor: Screen Time and Its Impact on Social Skill and Emotion Regulation

• In Event: Poster Session 20

Abstract

Background: On average, children 0 to 8 watch 2.5 hours of screen time daily (Rideout & Robb, 2020), more than double what is recommended for ages 2 to 5 (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2016). Research on general media usage found that high-persistent screen use was associated with higher levels of externalizing behaviors and lower levels of adaptive behaviors (McArthur et al., 2020). Additionally, research found that excessive toddlerhood television viewing was prospectively associated with increased social difficulties, peer victimization, and aggression expression (Simonato et al., 2018). However, children are still engaging in other types of play that may counter the negative impacts of screen time. For example, children who engage in high quality pretend play display better emotion regulation (Hoffman & Russ, 2012) and are more socially competent (Uren & Stagnitti, 2009) than children who do not. Similar findings exist regarding the quantity of pretend play a child engages (Gilpin et al., 2015; Galyer & Evans, 2001). Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate how preschoolers’ screen time impacts emotion regulation and social skills, and to examine whether high quality and high levels of pretend play can moderate the potentially negative relationship between screen time and outcome variables.

Hypotheses: Children with more overall screen time will display fewer social skills and poorer emotion regulation. Children’s frequency and quality of pretend play will each partially moderate the relationship between increased screen time and children’s emotion regulation and social skills.

Method: Thirty-three typically developing 4-year-old children completed a play task via a zoom visit. All guardians completed a Family Information and Screen Time Questionnaire created by the researcher with questions similar to those used in other studies (e.g., Madigan et al., 2019). Questions about how often children spend time engaging in pretend play were constructed from PARCA items (Saudino et al., 1998), similar to those used in a study by McEwen et al. (2007). All guardians completed the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition-Preschool Version (BASC-II; Kamphaus, 2015) to assess children’s emotion regulation and the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliot, 1990) to assess children’s social skills.

Analysis Plan: Multiple regression analyses will be used to examine the relationship between screen time and each pretend play scores, social skills ratings, and emotion regulation scores. A moderated regression will be used to determine if having more elaborate or pretend play moderates the associations between screen time and outcome variables. Data collection is almost complete and data will be coded and analyzed by the end of December 2022.

Implications: Young children’s experiences build foundations for later skills, including those in the social and emotional domain. As screen time increases (Eales et al., 2021), it may be taking away time from other more developmentally enriching activities and may have an impact on children’s social-emotional development. The findings of this research may help inform parents and educators about screen time limits and about activities that could buffer the potentially negative impacts screen time may have on social-emotional development.

Authors

• Daisy Monique Perez, California Sate University Stanislaus
  Presenting Author

• Lisa Timmons, California State University - Stanislaus